27 June 2008
Survey Finds Americans Are Religious, Tolerant, Nondogmatic
Belief in God held by vast majority of Americans
Washington -- The typical American believes in God (92 percent), believes in absolute standards of right and wrong (78 percent), prays at least weekly (75 percent), believes in life after death (74 percent) and believes in sacred scripture as the word of God (63 percent). But that typical American is also tolerant of other peoples’ beliefs and strikingly nondogmatic in the sense of not believing his or her own religion to be the only path to salvation or to have a monopoly on truth.
These findings emerge from a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
When issuing its landmark U.S. Religious Landscape Survey in February on the religious makeup of American society, the Pew Forum promised to issue a second analysis, based on the same survey, that would examine American religious beliefs and practices as well as social and political attitudes of believers and nonbelievers. (See “U.S. Religious Landscape Is Marked by Diversity and Change.”)
More than three-fourths of those surveyed classify themselves as Christian, and 5 percent belong to other faiths. A growing number of American adults (16 percent) do not belong to any particular religious group. More than 28 percent of American adults leave the faith of their childhoods to practice another religion -- or no religion.
Seventy percent of Americans who considered themselves affiliated with a particular religious tradition believe many religions can lead to eternal life, including solid majorities of Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Jews. Only among Mormons (39 percent) and Jehovah’s Witnesses (16 percent) is the notion that many religions can lead to eternal life a minority view, and those two religious groups constitute just 2.4 percent of the U.S. population, according to Pew, which is a nonpartisan research institution.
As for whether there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their particular religion, the overwhelming majority of Americans (68 percent) believe there is, again including solid majorities of Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Jews. Only Mormons (43 percent) and Jehovah’s Witnesses (18 percent) lack a majority willing to give assent to multiple interpretations.
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey queried more than 35,500 adults age 18 and older living in the United States, gathering data on not only the size of various religious groups, including the smallest ones, but also demographic characteristics, social and political values, religious practices and shifting religious affiliations. It was conducted by telephone in 2007 in both English and Spanish.
The survey found that a large portion (41 percent) of Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular group nevertheless say that religion is at least somewhat important in their lives and about 70 percent of them believe in God.
The unaffiliated are likely to be secular in their outlook and to hold liberal political views, while those who regularly attend worship services and hold traditional religious views are likely to be conservative in their political views, the survey found.
Among those who are affiliated with a particular religious group, less than a majority (44 percent) believe their religion should preserve its traditional beliefs and practices, while about one third (35 percent) believe their religion should adjust to new circumstances, and one-eighth (12 percent) believe their religion should adopt modern beliefs and practices.
Majorities of mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus believe their religions should adjust to new circumstances or adopt modern beliefs and practices, the survey found.
Americans don’t just believe in life after death; they believe in heaven (74 percent), hell (59 percent) and the supernatural (79 percent).
Popular culture is seen as a threat to their values by a significant minority (42 percent), especially Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and evangelical Protestants.
See also “Main Religious Affiliations in the United States.”
For more information on religious diversity in the United States, see Diversity-At Worship.
The complete U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (PDF 1.13 MB) is available on the Pew Forum Web site, as well as information about the first and second reports based on the survey.
